John Irving Quotes

People want to typecast you; it's human nature.

You really can't stereotype people or put them in boxes, it's unfair.

Names are what people sometimes use to excuse their thoughts and actions towards you.

People are quick to pigeonhole you.

Often you get pigeonholed because of the way you look.

The moment when someone attaches you to a philosophy or a movement, then they assign all the baggage and all the rest of the philosophy that goes with it to you. And when you want to have a conversation, they will assert that they already know everything important there is to know about you because of that association. And that's not the way to have a conversation.

Never categorize yourself, society does that to you, don't do it to yourself.

No one knows 'men' as such, any more than anyone knows 'women,' and if they do generalise they're probably trying to hide their own ignorance. You might know one 'man,' yes, or even lots of individual 'men'.

I hate stereotypes and I hate cliche.

It's so easy for people to stick a label on you, and then that taints everything you touch.

I know people look at me and try to make conclusions about me immediately, based on the obvious, let's say.

I don't like stereotypes - no kind of stereotypes.

I've tried to avoid labels, but they always find you.

The bad-boy label is just an assumption.

I don't like the monikers, and I don't like being pigeonholed. You know, I'm a human being.

I think any stereotyping is too much.

It's not a stereotype if it's always true.

The whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify. Instead of going through the problem of all this great diversity - that it's this or maybe that - you have just one large statement; it is this.

People look at you, and they've got just the perfect little box for you, the perfect category. Call you a redneck. Call you a hillbilly. Like those were insults.

To be very blunt, I am not really that concerned with what labels get associated with somebody.

People are real quick to jump at the easiest way to define you.

The reality that everyone is stereotyped - every one gets typecast, so you have to work to get out of that.

Putting labels on entire groups of people makes things much simpler. If all New Yorkers are pushy, or all politicians are dishonest, we don't have to do the hard work of figuring out who's who.

I just don't want to give anybody a reason to label me as something I'm not.

I know what people think I am. People think I'm dumb. People think I party all the time. People think I'm ignorant.